Pioneer girls working on confidence

Confidence will be the key for the Nebraska City girls’ soccer team tonight in its tough road match up against Elkhorn South in the Eastern Midlands Conference tourney.

Kirt Manion/Nebraska City News-Press

Confidence will be the key for the Nebraska City girls’ soccer team tonight in its tough road match up against Elkhorn South in the Eastern Midlands Conference tourney.

The Pioneers showed what they could do last week when they played with a high level of confidence in dismissing Auburn 6-0.

Nebraska City went into that match up feeling as though they had a good chance of success, they attacked, scored within the first five minutes, and never looked back.

Before dismissing the result as the product of playing a lesser team, it should be noted that the coaches for Nebraska City have been stressing confidence all year, because they believe the players on this Pioneer team are capable of more than what their record shows.

“It’s no mystery to anybody that we play a really tough schedule,” said assistant coach Madison Farris.

The Pioneer assistant noted that many of the players on opposing teams play soccer on an exclusive and year-round basis. That’s intimidating and Nebraska City has a tendency to get tripped up by trepidation.

“We are not as confident on the ball as we need to be,” said Coach Farris. “We try to preach to the girls to have confidence with the ball. It is a matter of getting that mind set across.”

Nebraska City has done that at times during this season. And the success has been there, regardless of the opponent.

“We have put together a lot of good spurts throughout the season,” said Farris. “We need to put it together and have a complete game.”

Coach Farris said he feels the team has more ability than they might think. And, provided that they have a complete effort, a win is possible, even against tough teams like Elkhorn South.